No evidence that maximum fundamental frequency reflects selection for signal diminution in bonobos

Abstract

Acoustic allometry consists of looking at how an organism’s body size scales with the characteristics of its vocalizations. A typical finding based on this framework is that across mammals body size is reflected in the fundamental frequency (fo) of vocalizations, whereby lower fo indicates larger body size [1]. This relationship holds owing to the fact that vocal fold length generally scales with body size [2]. Cross-species comparisons allow for the identification of interesting outliers from the body size–f0 regression [3]. Such cas Show more